Fat Wreck Chords
Fat Wreck Chords (pronounced Fat Records) is a San Francisco, California based independent record label, focused on punk rock. It was started by Fat Mike (lead singer and bassist of the punk rock band NOFX) and his wife, Erin, in 1990. They have released material for bands such as his own, NOFX, Descendents, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Propagandhi, Rise Against, Lagwagon, Strung Out, No Use for a Name, Less Than Jake, Against Me!, Anti-Flag, and more. One somewhat unique and defining characteristic of Fat Wreck Chords is that they only sign one-record deals with bands. This allows the bands working with Fat Wreck Chords to have a choice as to if and when they want to put a record out on the label.BBC Jan-16-2003: Fat Mike on The Lock Up - NOFX Wiki In some cases, bands have released albums on Fat Wreck Chords but also on other labels. Many bands on this label participated in the campaign Punkvoter, which was started by Fat Mike and attempted to encourage the youth in the U.S. to vote against George W. Bush in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. The label has never been a member of the Recording Industry Association of America as indicated on the frequently-asked questions portion of the label's website: "Are we a member? Not only no, but FUCK NO! We spent three years having our label’s name (which was misspelled) removed from their members list. A year went by, then our name showed up again on their fucking list! Who are these sonsabitches?! Needless to say, we’re in the process of having our name removed again, but they aren’t being too cooperative."http://www.fatwreck.com/community/faq However one of the many distributors carrying releases from Fat Wreck Chords is Sony BMG subsidiary RED Distribution,RED - An Artist Development Company an RIAA member. Imprints The label has had two subsidiaries over the years, Honest Don's and Pink & Black. Honest Don's released records from Diesel Boy, Chixdiggit, and Teen Idols amongst others, while Pink & Black released albums from female-fronted bands like Fabulous Disaster and Dance Hall Crashers. Fat Mike also advanced $50,000 to Chris Hannah and Jord Samolesky of Propagandhi which he recouped within months from sales of Propagandhi records to help them start up their own label, G7 Welcoming Committee,NOFX: The State of Punk to Come though G7WC is independent from Fat Wreck. Compilation albums Fat Wreck regularly releases compilation albums, often to promote bands signed to the label, but also, since 2003, to raise funds for various charities. The earliest Fat Wreck compilations all have titles with some reference to fatness: * Fat Music for Fat People (1994) * Fat Music Volume II: Survival of the Fattest (1996) * Fat Music Volume III: Physical Fatness (1997) * Fat Music Volume IV: Life in the Fat Lane (1999) * Fat Music Volume V: Live Fat, Die Young (2001) * Fat Music Volume VI: Uncontrollable Fatulence (2002) * Wrecktrospective (2009) * Fat Music Volume VII: Harder Fatter & Louder (2010) Shortly after Fat Music Volume IV was released, Fat Wreck released a similarly-titled album, Short Music For Short People, which features 101 songs, all averaging approximately 30 seconds. The shortest song ("Short Attention Span" by the Fizzy Bangers) is only seven seconds, and the longest ("Out of Hand" by Bad Religion) is 40 seconds. Some of the songs were commissioned and recorded specifically for the album, while others, such as "Deny Everything" by the Circle Jerks and "Spray Paint" by Black Flag, were from the bands' pre-existing repertoires. Since the last Fat Music album has been released, the Fat Wreck compilations have been explicitly for charitable causes. Liberation: Songs to Benefit PETA is a benefit album for the animal rights organization PETA, and PROTECT: A Benefit for the National Association to Protect Children is a benefit album for the children's rights group PROTECT. Between Liberation and PROTECT, two other compilation albums were released in protest of President George W. Bush and his administration: Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. To celebrate 20 years of business Fat Wreck Chords released the 3-disc Wrecktrospective compilation on December 8, 2009. Disc 1 is composed of the label's greatest hits, disc 2 is composed of unreleased demos and rarities, and disc 3 is composed the Fat Club 7" series in its entirety.http://www.fatwreck.com/record/detail/700 Album series Live in a Dive Live in a Dive is a series of live albums recorded by Fat Wreck Chords.Fat Wreck Chords: "Live in a Dive" In order of release: Fat Club Series In addition to the Live in a Dive series, Fat Wreck Chords also released the Fat Club series of 7" vinyl records. These records were later released as the third disc of the Wrecktrospective collection. Artist who released Fat Club Series records include: The Vandals, American Steel, The Real McKenzies, MxPx, Strike Anywhere, Randy, NOFX, Swinging Utters, Strung Out, Enemy You, The Lawrence Arms, One Man Army. Current bands * American Steel * Banner Pilot * Bullet Treatment * Chixdiggit! * Citizen Fish * Cobra Skulls * Dead to Me * Descendents * Dillinger Four * The Flatliners * Lagwagon * The Lawrence Arms * Leftöver Crack * The Loved Ones * Mad Caddies * Me First and the Gimme Gimmes * NOFX * No Use for a Name * None More Black * Old Man Markley * Only Crime * Paint It Black * Pour Habit * Randy * The Real McKenzies * Riverdales * Screeching Weasel * Smoke or Fire * Star Fucking Hipsters * Strung Out * Swingin' Utters * Teenage Bottlerocket * Western Addiction Former bands * 88 Fingers Louie (Disbanded) * Against Me! (Active, with Sire Records) * Anti-Flag (Active, with RCA) * The Ataris (Active, on Sanctuary Records) * Avail (on hiatus) * Bad Astronaut (Disbanded) * Bracket (Active, unsigned) * Consumed (Disbanded) * The Dickies * Diesel Boy (Inactive, but still signed to the Honest Don's roster) * Epoxies (Disbanded) * Face to Face (Active) * The Fight (Active) * Frenzal Rhomb (Active) * Goober Patrol * Good Riddance (Disbanded) * Guns n' Wankers (Disbanded) * Hi-Standard (Disbanded) * Less Than Jake (Active, with Sleep It Off Records) * Love Equals Death (disbanded) * MxPx (Active, on Tooth & Nail Records) * Nerf Herder (Active, unsigned) * None More Black (Active, unsigned) * Propagandhi (active with Smallman Records * Rancid (active, with Hellcat Records) * Rise Against (Active, with Geffen Records) * The Sainte Catherines (active with Ancorless Records) * Screw 32 (Disbanded) * Sick of It All (Active, with Century Media Records) * Snuff * The Soviettes (Disbanded) * Strike Anywhere * Subhumans (Active, with Bluurg Records) * Tilt (Disbanded) * WIZO (Disbanded) * Zero Down (Disbanded) Footnotes External links * Official site * Unofficial Fat Wreck Wiki site Category:Record Labels Category:Links to Wikipedia